I absolutely loved my time studying at Swansea University, so I was chuffed to be asked to write the following poem—celebrating both the university and the city—for their upcoming clearing campaign.

​What the team has done with a couple of pages of words is incredible, it's amazing to see it come to life.

I had a great time reading at Mission Gallery's 40th birthday celebrations last night. Thanks to Keith Bayliss and the gallery for inviting me. Here's to the next 40!

Photos taken from Mission Gallery's Facebook page.

Sad to see this Uplands graffito fading. Part of me hopes some hipster gentrifiers give it the Park Hill Bridge treatment (is that wrong?)

​At the Liberty Stadium to see some nogood boyos.

Yesterday I took a trip to the Lower Swansea valley, amongst other places, with Adam Sillman and Richard James Jones. The three of us were scouting out locations for an upcoming project, and Rich had suggested going to the site of the former Hafod Copperworks – 12-acres of land on the banks of the River Tawe which was once home to the largest copperworks in the world.

Although some might suggest that Swansea is better known for its record-breaking 180% rise in heroin use than its former position as the epicentre of the world's copper industry, 'Copperopolis' has enjoyed more newspaper space in recent years – especially since the 200th anniversary of the production of the first ingot was celebrated in 2011. 

Thanks to a partnership between the city's university and council, the Grade II-listed buildings that remain on the former works site are currently in the middle of a massive renovation project, with rotten timbers being removed, loose brickwork being reconstructed and overgrown vegetation being cleared. I hadn't been to that area of the Hafod for a number of years, and the difference was astounding.

​And then, almost as quickly as it had appeared, Swansea was gone.

A few months ago I posted about attending the Art and Science Expedition run by Cape Farewell on behalf of the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay project. 

Cape Farewell filmed parts of the two-day expedition, and have now published a short video on the Tidal Lagoon Google+ page. The video offers an overview of the expedition, and includes short interviews with some of the 'explorers' (including 'Rhys Owain Williams – Poet'). There's also a poem from Nigel Jenkins in there, which is always a bonus.

You can view the video here.

A side note – I've always been one of those people that makes fun of footballers and the linguistic fillers they use during post-match interviews. Maybe it's time to, sort of, cut those footballers some slack.

Last week I was invited to be a part of an 'Art and Science Expedition', run by Cape Farewell on behalf of the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay project: "a two-day short, rural and urban expedition around Swansea that [brought] emerging art and design students into dialogue with scientists and leading scientific research in order to stimulate a creative response."